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Topic Review (Newest First)

11-06-2013 08:02 AM

Koi Kameon

Mine spent most of their time out of the rocks

in anything from a half gallon to a gallon container with never more than a dozen shrimp. I'd say 8-9 always swimming around in the water column or moving across the lava rock. So, I don't think it is a quantity thing where if they get more "friends," they will swim around more.

05-11-2013 05:16 AM

Rob in Puyallup

Re: Hawaiian Red Shrimp always hiding

Try water movement and occasional feeding. Mine in filtered fed tanks are very active. Those in my unfiltered unfed tank are always hiding.

I have 25 in a 1.25 gallon tank and 60 in a five gallon. There are times when there is little activity and others times when many are swimming about. At one half inch a few more will not hurt. They are very active when being fed and I believe many videos are taken at that time. How often do you feed them? Do you have any snails? I think snails are useful. 10 MTS type snails would be fine. I also use the honeycomb rock in my 5 gallon. The more hiding places the more they seem to hide. My 1.25 is more open and active.

Thanks for the reply. I currently don't have any snails, tho I have been considering it due to algae. I do feed them homegrown spirulina algae every few weeks that I feed my cichlids. A few jump on it, but not all. I was wondering if the powdered form might cause more activity?

I'm thinking I may add another group, and if its still barren in the tank ill remove some rock. Does anyone have any recommendations for a source? The best I found through user Rob was some aquabid sellers for about 1.30 per shrimp, which was pretty good. But cheaper is better.

05-11-2013 03:09 AM

KenP

I have 25 in a 1.25 gallon tank and 60 in a five gallon. There are times when there is little activity and others times when many are swimming about. At one half inch a few more will not hurt. They are very active when being fed and I believe many videos are taken at that time. How often do you feed them? Do you have any snails? I think snails are useful. 10 MTS type snails would be fine. I also use the honeycomb rock in my 5 gallon. The more hiding places the more they seem to hide. My 1.25 is more open and active.

05-10-2013 08:45 AM

eightoeight

I think it's just the size of the tank and the number of opae ula you have. I felt the same way when I had a few in a 1.5 gallon. It just seemed very sparse and empty. I added more and now it doesn't feel empty.

Behavior wise, they mostly just crawl around on the (dead) coral/substrate and graze. There's not much room to swim for them in the 1.5 so I don't notice that behavior much.

In my 10 gallon there's a lot of vertical empty space so I notice them swim and glide around more.

If there are hiding places, a "large" tank, and few shrimp, I think it's just natural that it would seem like they aren't around (and not something you are doing wrong with water parameters or anything).

05-10-2013 07:55 AM

Freyr

Hawaiian Red Shrimp always hiding

Hey everyone. I had a question for those of you that have kept opae ula/Hawaiian red shrimp. I currently have 20 shrimp in a 3 gallon cube. My main issue is they rarely, if ever, show themselves. I have 2 fist sized pieces of honeycomb rock in the tank, and they spend all their time inside it. I've seen videos of opae tanks where the shrimp are highly active and mobile. Swimming around, etc. Mine seem to be painfully shy.

As far as water params, I'm at 0 ammonia,nitrate,nitrite, 7.7 ph and 1.013 salinity. I dont think its a water issue, as most have colored up nicely and ive found several molts in the tank. Tank has been up for 2 months with the shrimp, so I would have thought they wouldn't have settled in by now and become more active.

My only thought at this point is I have too few shrimp? I've thought maybe adding more would bring out some better behavior, but I'm reluctant to spend more money when I can't get this group happy. Thoughts/opinions would be appreciated!